Abstract
Monitoring glacier fluctuations provides insights
into changing glacial environments and recent climate
change. The availability of satellite imagery offers the opportunity
to view these changes for remote and inaccessible
regions. Gaining an understanding of the ongoing changes in
such regions is vital if a complete picture of glacial fluctuations
globally is to be established. Here, satellite imagery
(Landsat 7, 8 and ASTER) is used to conduct a multi-annual
remote sensing survey of glacier fluctuations on the Kamchatka
Peninsula (eastern Russia) over the 2000–2014 period.
Glacier margins were digitised manually and reveal
that, in 2000, the peninsula was occupied by 673 glaciers,
with a total glacier surface area of 775.7 ± 27.9 km2
. By
2014, the number of glaciers had increased to 738 (reflecting
the fragmentation of larger glaciers), but their surface area
had decreased to 592.9 ± 20.4 km2
. This represents a ∼ 24 %
decline in total glacier surface area between 2000 and 2014
and a notable acceleration in the rate of area loss since the
late 20th century. Analysis of possible controls indicates that
these glacier fluctuations were likely governed by variations
in climate (particularly rising summer temperatures), though
the response of individual glaciers was modulated by other
(non-climatic) factors, principally glacier size, local shading
and debris cover.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1809-1821 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | The Cryosphere |
Volume | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22 Aug 2016 |